A missiological analysis of strategies of the Seventh-day Adventist Church missionaries in South Africa
Loading...
Date
2022
Authors
Williams, Sicelo James
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) was organised in 1860 in the United States of America (USA). In the 1890s, the church was established in South Africa among White people (Mafani 2011:84). The church employed different strategies to convert the people in South Africa. The reason for this study was to identify and analyse the strategies used by SDA missionaries to convert people to Christianity in South Africa. The researcher used the praxis cycle of Madge Karecki as an analytical framework to analyse the missionary activities of the SDA missionaries at three mission stations. This was done by reading the primary "missionary reports" and "archival documents" written by SDA missionaries, or others who wrote about SDA missionary work in South Africa. The researcher visited the archives, selected books on the missionaries, and documented the histories of the missionaries, as well as others on the mission activities that took place. The study found that the strategies were marked by evils such as racism, militant sectarianism, and blind support of oppressive economic and political systems. The missionary strategies were not contextualised to fit in the local situation of the African people. The missionary strategies focused only on the teachings of the Bible and failed to address issues of human dignity and social justice. The SDA missionary strategies were Eurocentric and failed to consider the local cultures of the African people.
Description
Keywords
Thesis (Ph.D. (Practical and Missional Theology))--University of the Free State, 2022, Seventh-day Adventist Church, missionary strategies, Western mission, conversion, Christianity, culture, contextualisation, Western Christianity, African traditional religion, salvation